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When your fleet vehicles are spread out across multiple geographic areas, you need smart solutions to manage your remote workforce. It is important to communicate, monitor productivity and safety of remote workers to keep them engaged, safe and motivated.

Using telematics for remote workforce management

Telematics combines informatics and telecommunication to offer intelligent fleet management solutions with asset and vehicle tracking technology. With telematics, it is not only easy to track the vehicles, monitor the exact location, speed and fuel consumption, but also manage the mobile workforce in a streamlined way. GPS sensors transmit real-time information about drivers, which enable fleet managers to gather, monitor and analyse a host of remote workforce data.

However, while traditional GPS tracking products can gather individual data at predetermined times, Sensium’s ArmadaGPS with Truepath Tracking™ offers second by second vehicle data reports that continually track the exact path taken across the journey. With this innovative technology, fleet managers can:

• Identify risky driving behaviours such as harsh braking, over-speeding, acceleration and cornering
• Monitor driver activity out of hours
• Compare each driver’s current and past performance
• Analyse a driver’s performance in relation to other drivers
• Use live maps to identify riskier roads to improve driver safety
• Enhanced driver monitoring with driver ID-Module (add-on) 

The continuous real-time data helps you watch the journeys live or play the recording at any time to ensure no detail is missed.

Communicate better

Before the advent of telematics, communicating with multiple drivers out in the field was a complex business. Large fleet management involves management of resources spread across a wide geographical area. 

ArmadaGPS with Truepath Tracking™ simplifies communication processes while reducing the need for and time spent in checking in and reporting in. The technology automates the process and ensures fleet managers always have access to the most necessary data on the workforce. Additionally, with two-way messaging enabled by Garmin Messaging, fleet managers and drivers can stay in touch throughout the journey.

Review and reward performance

Telematics is also an intelligent solution which can be used by fleet managers to:

• Efficiently review, monitor and manage driver performance
• Make data-driven decisions with driving performance data
• Provide quick, reliable and efficient driver feedback with actionable reports
• Identify substandard performance
• Provide additional training, instruction or information
• Encourage drivers to improve their driving
• Reward consistent good performance

Easy two-way communication, data-based performance review and timely feedback can help keep your remote workforce engaged and motivated, which ultimately reflects on your business’ bottom line.

Increasing productivity, staying on schedule, adhering to budget and ensuring safety are the key focus areas and also the biggest challenges of fleets across industries.  Read on for a simple 4-step productivity strategy checklist. 

Large enterprise companies that own thousands of vehicles and manage multiple drivers face unique challenges related to fleet management:

• Managing a large team of drivers
• Utilising assets to the optimal extent
• Finding specific information quickly
• Preventing unauthorised use of assets
• Reducing fuel cost

Fleet managers need to not only overcome operational challenges but also have to deal with environmental policies, cybersecurity mandates, productivity challenges and vehicle utilisation, all of which impacts business success.

The telematics way to business success

Telematics, as a key management tool for fleet managers, offers smart solutions that equip fleet managers and owners to streamline operations and safety while optimising business success.

Vehicles with GPS fleet tracking or telematics technology provide efficient solutions to ongoing pain points of fleet managers by offering real-time insights into comprehensive data. From controlling costs, minimising time wastage, increasing efficiency to meeting safety standards, telematics address complex challenges that can hamper business success.

Safety tracking:

Driver safety being of paramount concern, fleet managers need to get the digital blueprint of all aspects of the vehicle operation. ArmadaGPS with Truepath Tracking™ offers second by second 24/7 recording of vehicle data through its entire journey. With real-time data and alerts, the telematics help fleet managers understand how to implement accident prevention measures to enhance driver safety standards.

Customer service:

Management of a fleet requires day and night attention. Customers or employees can seek information at any time. With telematics, you can quickly access the required information from any device and any location, helping you optimise customer service.

Cost efficiency:

A safe fleet is also a cost-efficient one. Telematics help in getting accurate insights into vehicle damage or wear and tear, speeding fines, excess fuel use and driver behaviour. With smart metrics such as harsh braking, speed and acceleration, fleet managers can set up alerts to warn drivers upon breaching speed limits and save on speeding fines. In a survey of fleet managers, 46% said telematics reduced their fuel expenses.

Streamline all business areas:

A survey of fleet operators in New Zealand shows that 79% of them plan to or currently implement telematics to efficiently manage their vehicles, staff and assets. ArmadaGPS with Truepath Tracking™ helps businesses reduce errors associated with manual timesheet reporting and paperwork, automate routine tasks, manage time more efficiently to optimise productivity, and, in turn, profitability.

Telematics is a coming together of two sciences: ‘tele’ or remote communications (tele is Greek for ‘at a distance’) and ‘informatics’, the practice of information processing. It is one of the key innovations to transform commercial fleet management, as we know it.

In fact, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that telematics systems have become a part and parcel of the fleet management and safety apparatus of businesses with mobile assets. The hardware component of a telematics system gathers data, including vehicle location and activity, driver behaviour and vehicle diagnostics, while the software platform provides a visualisation of this data for actionable insights.

How fleet managers are using telematics

Telematics is enabling fleet managers to improve the efficiency and safety of their mobile workforce. Here are some benefits that make telematics a vital investment for effective fleet management.

Reducing fleet operating costs

Prices at the petrol pump are increasing. The right fleet management decisions can optimise fuel costs. There are other sources of cost savings and efficient expense management: calculating hours in wages is no longer a headache, while better driving behaviours such as idling, speeding and harsh braking keep costs down and potential fines away.

Maximise vehicle productivity

The ability to locate your vehicles and book your next job without the necessity for vehicles to return to base boosts vehicle productivity. Features such as live tracking, alerts and heat maps allow for teams to see where time is being spent and adjust accordingly, and keep time more efficiently and effectively plan their daily job schedule.

Encourage staff accountability

Other than views into asset location, advanced GPS technology can show how vehicles are being driven and by who, record idle time and unsafe behaviours like speeding, and provide a host of other performance-related data that motivates drivers to be accountable.

Provide accurate billing of staff time

Assistance with timesheets and billing ensures that staff and customers alike are billed accurately This has the effect of ensuring queries are kept to a minimum or if one should occur, it can be quickly and accurately validated.

Resolve customer and operational queries accurately and promptly

Are you able to give clients an estimate of when your vehicles will arrive? With a window into asset location at any time during the journey, you can keep clients updated about the whereabouts of vehicles as well as arrival times. That’s not all. From user-friendly maps to accurate and timely decision-making from the collected vehicle data, telematics can dramatically increase operational efficiencies, and contribute to higher customer satisfaction.

Ensure the safety and compliance of vehicles and employees

Besides a view into vehicle name, group and type, and their exact position by street view or satellite, and knowledge of what exactly a vehicle was doing at any point in time, to monitoring out of hours driver activity and drivers’ safety alarms, telematics provides a wealth of compliance and safety related data. Imagine a situation where you can see that a technician has been in the same spot for a suspiciously long time, and investigate the issue in a timely manner. If the technician has passed out or suffered a seizure, this insight can potentially save his life.

Job cost analysis

By tracing specific costs to each individual vehicle or job, you can perform accurate cost and performance analysis, as well as predict resource costs to a large extent.

Telematics empowers drivers to work smartly by giving them more control over their daily routines and collaborate effectively with dispatchers to meet deadlines in an organised manner. Access to information and easy collaboration via smartphones and tablets remove frustrations and enhance job satisfaction.